There aren't many people that say that they have been involved in a project as highly acclaimed as EverQuest. Fortunately, I am one of those few people that can. Now, in my fourth year with the team, I have the distinct pleasure to announce the latest expansion for EverQuest: Rain of Fear™

EverQuest celebrates an unprecedented 20th major game release with the Rain of Fear™ Expansion. Thirteen years after the initial launch of EverQuest and 19 expansions later, Rain of Fear™ continues an exciting storyline that started two years ago with the mysterious House of Thule™ Expansion, and continued in Veil of Alaris™.

You and your friends destroyed the newly created god, The Triumverate, causing an explosion that rocked Norrath and released the stolen power of fear. This power is returning to Norrath, falling from the sky in the form of crystalline shards. Who will gain control of the essence of fear and bring balance between good and evil?

The Harbingers of Thule entreat you to gather the essence of their lost god before it falls into the hands of others. You will uncover the mysteries of the giant crystals that have fallen to Norrath, explore newly discovered lands, revisit the frozen wastes of Velious, and battle old foes empowered by shards, confront them and reclaim the power of fear.

Along the way you will progress up to the unprecedented level of 100! We're pretty excited to see the first character reach level 100 in EverQuest, a true gaming landmark.

We will also be adding a few amazing features to this classic game. We will be adding a way to track your relative aggro level. Ever wanted to know when the bad guy was about to turn around and mash your rogue before it happened? With the new aggro meter if you get caught over-aggroing, you'll have no real excuse. There are also new Collection and Hunter Tasks; these will allow you to gather up various items all over Norrath as well as track your kills to gain new titles and new rewards. Want to become the Gnollslayer? Gnomeslayer? Now you can. We will also be making some major improvements to the brokering system. The Autonomous Brokering system (name may change if people continue to have issues pronouncing it...) is something that you have asked us for, something that we've wanted to make for you, for years. You will be able to turn off your computer and keep your trader up in Bazaar!

This is an exciting expansion for the EverQuest team, we hope it will be just as exciting for our customers as well. Thanks for playing EverQuest!

Comments

Personally I am happy the development team puts in such hard work into this new expansion. It shows long time players like myself, that our game will continue to grow and keep things just as interesting as it was when we started. It truely is an Everquest.

If you are going to be downloading custom maps and don't want them written over be sure to put them into a subfolder, ie. C:\EQ\maps\MyMaps, then change the dropdown menu from Default to MyMaps or whatever you might have named the folder

I'm really excited about the offline trading. Now, I don't have to have 2nd trader up on my computer, taking up resources as I play on my toon. *does dance* And now I can put my trader up for days until she runs out of junk. =P

Not so happy about level 100 though. Wish they'd add more content over more levels. But meh, whatever.

Now if we can get a decent rain spell for wizards - faster casting and triggering twincast - not just on initial wave; then EQ would reign supreme again ;)

Of course we need a new manaburn that rivals the rog ranger and zerker killshots of 255k instant type dmg and it would be nice to be ABLE to compete with zerkers on sub two min dps parses and necros on everything else. Perhaps tuning things a bit so wizards can win the sub four min fight?

I just hope there are zones for different levels, as the last expansions have been for end game players.

In my case I'm not in a guild, do no raids, and mainly solo. I would not buy an expansion if it's only for 80+ content.

People could argue that there are plenty of zones for lower levels, but then consider that many of the rewards for items have been destroyed by Defiant Gear. Like why hunt in an area to get items that are useless. Maybe the new expansion could reign in defiant gear being volatile as in the gear wears away with damage, or time.

As an enchanter for my main character I would also like to see a spell to invis your pet and yourself, that way you could go deeper into dungeons and hunt in workable areas without having to path kill into the area and most likely have to gate out on any problem. Give soloers the ability to see in dungeons deeper!

I just hope there are zones for different levels, as the last expansions have been for end game players.

In my case I'm not in a guild, do no raids, and mainly solo. I would not buy an expansion if it's only for 80+ content.

People could argue that there are plenty of zones for lower levels, but then consider that many of the rewards for items have been destroyed by Defiant Gear. Like why hunt in an area to get items that are useless. Maybe the new expansion could reign in defiant gear being volatile as in the gear wears away with damage, or time.

As an enchanter for my main character I would also like to see a spell to invis your pet and yourself, that way you could go deeper into dungeons and hunt in workable areas without having to path kill into the area and most likely have to gate out on any problem. Give soloers the ability to see in dungeons deeper!

One could argue that VoA destroyed the value of most of my HoT gear, 'cept for the augs. A quick fix for the Defiant destroying the value of your old gear, is simply; Don't use Defiant gear. Problem solved. Since you said you ainly solo, this shouldn't be a big deal. Go back to batfang headbands and gatorscale sleeves if you like. I don't think it destroyed my toon when I played. I thought it aloowed him to ramp up quickly, as, at this point in time, the game seems to be all about the end game anyways. That's why they ramped up the AA bonus, by the way.

What level is your enchanter? And what gear? Because enchanters are pretty boxx for getting into and out of places. It's kind of ...what they do. Although it's a lot easier at 95 than at level 16, and in some area appropriate gear.

Download some maps. Now you can see farther in dungeons. And get some stalking probles, holgresh elder beads or that gnome robot thing that I can't remember the name of, that pops a mini gnome out and acts as an eyeball. Maybe someone here can remember what it's called. http://www.mapfiend.net/

That sounds nice but you don't need to invis your pet. Its not like the enemy can some how see your pet but not you and then it attacks you or kills your pet and leaves you alone. That is not how it works. Invisibility is a level 4 enchanter spell. It is not very reliable though as it will fade at random. Improved Invisibility is a level 50 spell that won't fade at random but an enemy that can see through invisibility will still attack you. If you are in an area where there is an area effect kind of spell it will also knock out your invisibility. You also get a class Alternate Ability called Perfected Invisibility. Hope this helps you some how.

That sounds nice but you don't need to invis your pet. Its not like the enemy can some how see your pet but not you and then it attacks you or kills your pet and leaves you alone. That is not how it works. Invisibility is a level 4 enchanter spell. It is not very reliable though as it will fade at random. Improved Invisibility is a level 50 spell that won't fade at random but an enemy that can see through invisibility will still attack you. If you are in an area where there is an area effect kind of spell it will also knock out your invisibility. You also get a class Alternate Ability called Perfected Invisibility. Hope this helps you some how.Edited, Sep 8th 2012 11:21am by Rickymaru

The problem is your Pet dies if you go invisible. Pet classes who are worth their salt, deck out their pets with armour and proc weapons. I don't want to lose my pet so as to deeper into a dungeon. I also rarely die, so my pets last as long as their still current in spell line, so carrying the pet's weapons in is not a wanted choice. Also if you could invis your pet then if you get attacked you have the defence you need.

I understand some mobs see through invisibility spells, but that's why you could con to see if they are attack or not. Also there was a spell to let you look around corners.

That sounds nice but you don't need to invis your pet. Its not like the enemy can some how see your pet but not you and then it attacks you or kills your pet and leaves you alone. That is not how it works. Invisibility is a level 4 enchanter spell. It is not very reliable though as it will fade at random. Improved Invisibility is a level 50 spell that won't fade at random but an enemy that can see through invisibility will still attack you. If you are in an area where there is an area effect kind of spell it will also knock out your invisibility. You also get a class Alternate Ability called Perfected Invisibility. Hope this helps you some how.Edited, Sep 8th 2012 11:21am by Rickymaru

The problem is your Pet dies if you go invisible. Pet classes who are worth their salt, deck out their pets with armour and proc weapons. I don't want to lose my pet so as to deeper into a dungeon. I also rarely die, so my pets last as long as their still current in spell line, so carrying the pet's weapons in is not a wanted choice. Also if you could invis your pet then if you get attacked you have the defence you need.

I understand some mobs see through invisibility spells, but that's why you could con to see if they are attack or not. Also there was a spell to let you look around corners.

e8hffff, either you have not played in a long time, or you are a moron. Pets do not poof anymore when you invis, and have not for many years.

As for the spell that lets you look around corners.... Eye of Zomm, available to everyone via a Stalking Probe or similar item.

e8hffff, either you have not played in a long time, or you are a moron. Pets do not poof anymore when you invis, and have not for many years. As for the spell that lets you look around corners.... Eye of Zomm, available to everyone via a Stalking Probe or similar item.

I will test next time my pet dies, or I get a new pet spell. The enchanter pet is different in many ways, so maybe you're not seeing that angle.

Yeah that's the spell, 'Eye of Zomm'. You caught me being lazy to look it up.

I've played since the game come out, but there have been multiple year breaks over the time.

Oh my bad. I figured you played recently and must have discovered that casting invisibility on yourself no longer kills your pet. Neither does zoning which is real nice too. No need to suspend pet either if that was the old method you would use to get your pet across a zone line without it getting killed. You can even log out with your pet up and it should be with you when you get back as long as you didn't /quit and some how die. Now if you die too all your stuff doesn't stay on your corpse. You get to keep it all though you will still want to get rezzed to get back the exp loss. These are just some of the cool things that were added since you last played. Anyways have fun.

This makes going into dungeons much easier. Put on invisibility and move into the area you want to hunt. Note undead needs a different invisibility casted to not see you. The pet is not seen unless in attack mode.

'Rain of Fear' sounds a bit silly - I'm sure I've seen that before a dozen times over in other works. That said I'm excited by the features, especially offline trading - finally! Ha, my beloved EQ gets there in the end.

Reign of Fear, you mean? Or more likely reign of terror? Without the pun?

Rain of Fear is a perfect name since the shards will be "raining" down all over norrath... i dont know why everyone seems to have so much trouble with the name

Why are you replying to the wrong post ivancoll? If e8hffff is talking about charmed pets then he should have said something about them but he did not. He said enchanter pet which is those levitating sword looking things unless an illusion is used on em.

After 13 years, they are introducing game features that WoW already has. Playing catch-up is not going to bring new players into the game. Oh well, I certainly enjoyed my years of playtime, but I left with the release of the last expansion and its lackluster features.

Dude you got owned. Your probably such a troll too that you will never even see the fact that you got owned.

I personally like the idea of raising the lvl limit to 100. Gives the non raider types more of a chance to actually raid older content. Like Citadel of Anguish for epic 2.0 orb. Some of the 2.0 clickies are still nice to use. Not saying you need a raid for that anymore but if you 2 or 3 box then you could probably go in at lvl 100 without any help and wipe the zone out to get the orb for an alt. Same thing with Vishimtar to get that last DoN aa. They really should clarify what major releases they are talking about though. If they included the original Everquest as a major release then i could see this next expansion counting as the 20th release.

Yet still take time out of your EQ-Devoid life to come here and bash EQ. Sounds like major ****-hurt to me. Or daddy issues.

I could not care less about WoW. WoW doesn't exist in my world. If they steal features from it, I don't care. If it improves game play, I'm for it. If it doesn't, I won't begrudge changes for the sake of keeping a 13 year game that is going strong anyway a new freshness.

This isn't about game superiority or class warefare. It's about Everquest. Why not attack EQ for stealing game chat (chat = every single feature in the game) from other games? After all, EQ wasn't the first to feature chat (chat = every single feature in the game). And certainly won't be the last to use chat. (chat = every single feature in the game). Why would you not attack EQ for this? Because it's pointless.

/sarcasm on

I quit playing Everquest because it wasn't enough like Need For Speed, myself. And then went to Zam after I quit a year ago to tell everyone I quit and EQ sucked because it is adding new features to the game.

What has Everquest done over and over again. Give us new expansions. Since about 10 expansion back have not seen any changes in our current character yeah, but we get this crappy new armor. I like hear what some people have say about that. If they are wearing it just because they way tired of old crap. I rather pay for new changes in our character then another silly expansion again. I would like not look like guy next to me. We need to beable to change our character in more details even if sit in stone at time of creations. more ablitiy to change how the shape characters body, head and hair styples. More ablity to change the skin tones, like from snow white skin to darkist dark skin tones. More varity in hair styles and hair color. how tall the character is from real young to real old. more ablity the put strinks in hair. Wild hair color. wrinkles , Baby faces. Be able to put more color detail in armor if we want. Be able to have eithre really skinny character to fat ones. We live world there peopel from all walks of life, Why can Norrath be like that in real Norath time people would been like that. Change the way our pet look. Let us change the pet name to what we want. Give us option how on how our pet can look like. Why can't have these like changes. Support and help create open raids with new look Boss mob to kill. Why should raid be limited to guilds. Have more GM contest to where guild can compete again one another for Grand prize for there Guild hall to display. More GM event to be held once a month for unual and one kind prizes given. Get people excited again about this game. instead same old grinding. They shake things up with we have now and change some stuff we have now, instead of new expansion. we just got new expansion. They just need had new content and fix old stuff. LIke our characters. The changes they make armor is crap. They need more detail that be dye in individual parts of armor like being able to change the vary color of different section of Tunic or Breatplate not just whole armor its self. Character should look more life like. Not everyone game is same age or body structure. Some of us are fat.thin, young old. Why can't any of our character show this. From hallving to human to lizard to the drakkin and ect etc. This change we need. The character should be extention of our personality. Allow us to define who we are.

Super excited about the offline traders. I feel it will bring a balance back in the prices and more sellers back in the bazaar like the good old days. :) Plus, I am even more interested in the AA that will come with the level increases.

'Rain of Fear' sounds a bit silly - I'm sure I've seen that before a dozen times over in other works. That said I'm excited by the features, especially offline trading - finally! Ha, my beloved EQ gets there in the end.

'Rain of Fear' sounds a bit silly - I'm sure I've seen that before a dozen times over in other works. That said I'm excited by the features, especially offline trading - finally! Ha, my beloved EQ gets there in the end.

Reign of Fear, you mean? Or more likely reign of terror? Without the pun?

Stop swarming/hs, or hunting in 3 or 4 year old content. In this game, it's absurd how easy exp is gained...and now AA's are hypershot up to 4K in a heartbeat. I find it sad enough to see lvl 94/95 grinding in T1 or (T2 for that matter) content of HOT. But to see high levels in UF or even SOD (like SK's in MG)...that's really pathetic...and they "wonder why" it takes sooo long to grind to endgame.

You want a grind, do the missions and Hunter Achivements to kill named on the list...in the current expansion or at the very least something remotely difficult in HoT.